Chapter 38: King of Wolves

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Translator: MagicFishCat

Proof-reader: TheMonitor

[Warning!]

[The King of Wolves has appeared!]

A message appeared.

‘Wolf!’

It had the appearance of a boss monster. Soo Hyuk looked at the wolf king and thought.

‘It’s massive……’

It was indeed a boss monster. The other wolves couldn’t hold a candle to it, especially its sheer size. It extruded a dominating aura as it stalked towards him.

‘Can I beat it?’

Soo Hyuk fell into doubt after seeing its size. Would he be able to hunt it? He could one-shot regular wolves, but this was a different kettle of fish. It possessed dozens of times more health than the other wolves. If he couldn’t kill it in two hits with fireball and magic missile, he would have to hold out for at least another 10 seconds with less than half of his health remaining. But the question remained, could he endure for 10 seconds?

Thump! Thump!

Soo Hyuk desperately considered his options as the distance between him and the wolf king continued to shrink. Although the Wolf King was moving slowly, it’s size rendered the distance between them into a trivial matter.  

Soo Hyuk considered his options, he had to decide whether he would run or fight. Any later, and the wolf king would spot him and force him to fight.

‘Okay.’

He had made up his mind.

‘My health isn’t even half full right now.’

If Soo Hyuk had full health, he would have a higher chance of killing the Wolf King. But in this situation where he had less than half health, trying to kill the Wolf King would be too much of a gamble. If his initial fireball and magic missile failed to kill the wolf king, then he would be as good as dead.

‘The death penalty is pretty serious as well.’

He would’ve gone all out if there was no death penalty, but there was a penalty, and a it was nothing to scoff at. A 24 hour ban, the loss of  1 level, all stats would randomly drop by 1-3 points and one random personal item would be dropped.

The loss of one item wasn’t a big problem for him, as he didn’t have anything valuable on him. The problem was the rest of the penalties.  He wouldn’t be able to log on for 24hours, and he would have to compensate the loss of a level with more time spent hunting to regain his level.

‘Let’s run away for now.’

Soo Hyuk turned around and quietly escaped from the massive Wolf King.

* * *

Eastern Hunting Ground, Bear Habitat.

Roar!

The bear swung its massive paws with a roar. The healing Magician in front of the bear quickly dodged it’s claws and rolled away. The healing Magician then hurriedly got up and looked warily at the bear, who was also staring at Kyuu.

“When will Ice Fog be ready?”

Kyuu asked her two companions.

“The cooldown’s almost done!”

“Electro Ball and Chain Lightning are also ready!”

Her two companions replied.

Roar!

When Kyuu heard their answers, she once again dodged to the side to avoid the bear’s claws. But this time, she couldn’t fully dodge the attack.

“Ugh!”

Kyuu was slashed across the chest and she lost a portion of her health. She continued dodging, all the while healing herself with magic. As she rolled away again, one of her teammates shouted.

“Ice Fog!”

A pale-blue fog descended upon the bear.

[Bear’s speed is reduced by 20%]

Ice Fog was a skill which reduced movement indiscriminately, allies as well as foes would be affected. After seeing the message, Kyuu threw herself out of the fog as fast as she could possibly move.

“Now!”

Kyuu shouted as she exited the fog.

“Electro Ball!”

When he heard Kyuu’s shout, Kevin quickly fired his Electro Ball at the bear. The Electro Ball flew at a high speed towards the bear and exploded after hitting its chest. The Electro Ball was two times bigger than it’s initial size after being enhanced by the ice fog.

Roarrr!

The bear howled in pain. But Kevin knew they couldn’t kill a bear with just one Electro Ball.

“Chain Lightning!”

That was why he had prepared a Chain Lightning before he fired the Electro Ball. When he cast Chain Lightning, a chain of electricity burst out of his staff and flew towards the bear.

When the Lightning Chain entered the Ice Fog, it was also enhanced like the Electro Ball. The Chain Lightning then crashed onto the struggling bear.

Boooom!

After taking the Ice Fog enhanced Electro Ball and Chain Lightning the bear couldn’t take any more. After howling and groaning in pain, the struggling bear died inside the Ice Fog.

“We did it!”

“Well done, everyone.”

“Haha, we did it!”

After they killed the bear, Kyuu, Kato, and Kevin sat down together and rested.

“Wow, this is tiring.”

“We should’ve started somewhere else.”

“Yeah, the parties would have been more balanced as well.”

Matab city was a Magician’s world. Warrior? Thief? There was no such thing, so of course the parties would be unbalanced. It was to the point where healing magicians had to act as tanks.

“Has Ice Fog reset yet?”

“Yep!”

“Then let’s get started again.”

The three magicians finished their rest and stood up. Then they started searching the surrounding area for more bears.

“Hey! We found it first!”

“What a joke. Can’t you see our fog?”

The other players were already fighting bears. No, since there were so many players, they had even started fighting amongst themselves. Hunting bears was already difficult but the competition to get the dibs was often even more difficult.

“Can we just go to the wolf area?”

Kyuu suggested.

“Will we be able to last?”

Kato asked in response to Kyuu’s question.

“I think it’s going to be difficult.”

Kevin agreed with Kato. The reason that there was so much competition for the bears was because no-one was willing to hunt wolves, they were just too hard. In Matab, where parties only had Magicians, facing wolves who attacked with numbers was impossible.

“And we can’t control the battle as well.”

When fighting bears, Kyuu could draw its attention while the others attacked it, but it was impossible with wolves. With a large number of wolves, Kyuu wouldn’t be able to draw their attention. No, even if she could, she would just die instantly.

“What about picking off lone wolves on the outskirts of the wolf territory?”

Kyuu suggested to Kato and Kevin.

“We can always run away if we’re near the edge. And I think hunting any more bears is going to be quite difficult.”

It wasn’t that bears were hard to fight, it was because they were hard to find with all the other players also hunting bears.

“Hmm, what does Kevin-nim think?”

“Let’s give it a try.”

“Then let’s go.”

After she persuaded Kevin and Kato, Kyuu took the lead as their party walked towards the wolf territory.

“I think 4 wolves is okay.”

“Mm, we did manage to hunt four at once before.”

“Then let’s run if there’s five wolves.”

Their party was discussing tactics when they arrived at the edge of the wolf territory. They could only spot one wolf in the surrounding area.

“I’ll draw it over.”

Kyuu said as she began approaching the wolf.

“Wait.”

Kevin called out to Kyuu before she went too far. Hearing his voice, Kyuu turned to look at Kevin curiously.

“Isn’t this a bit weird?”

Kevin said as he stared at the defenceless wolf while frowning.

“This is a bit weird. It should have at least sensed something by now.”

“Why does it keep staring further in the forest?”

The wolf was acting strangely. It was staring fixedly at the depths of the forest while totally ignoring its surroundings.

“Is there something deeper in the forest?”

Kevin thought out loud as he turned to stare cautiously at the deeper regions of the forest. Was there something in the forest that could scare wolves?

Crash!

The party suddenly heard a loud crash from the area the wolf was staring at. Then a message appeared.

[The king of the forest, King of Wolves had been defeated.]

[All wolves will fall into a ‘fear’ state for 5 minutes.]

Kyuu tilted her head in confusion at the sudden message.

‘The Kings of Wolves died?’

What was the King of Wolves? Numerous players had once ventured deep into the wolf territory to search for the boss monsters but no one had managed to defeat it then. How could it have just suddenly died?

‘Did a Ranker come?’

Of course, this wasn’t the first time the Wolf King had been defeated. But every time it was killed, it was the work of high-level players and rankers. Kyuu then turned to ask her party.

“Should we continue?”

* * *

Soo Hyuk smiled as he checked his inventory. He currently had 20 health potions.

Soo Hyuk had returned to the city at top speed after escaping from the King of Wolves. Then, after he had eaten lunch, he bought 20 health potions from the marketplace.

“I’ve also learned Fire Bolt.”

[Fire Bolt]

Proficiency: Level 1 (0%)

Special Effects: 30% chance to burn the target.

Mana: 300

Cooldown: 20 seconds

Activation time: 2 seconds

Soo Hyuk had bought the items needed to complete the Firebolt skill quest at the Flame Pagoda in the city after his fiasco in the woods.

“If only I had more money.”

Soo Hyuk had only managed to complete the ‘Firebolt’ quest. He would’ve attempted the other quests if he had enough money, but in the end, he was disappointed.

“This much should be enough.”

Soo Hyuk now had 3 skills, and he also possessed 20 health potions. Now, he had no reason to run away if the wolf king appeared again.

Awoo!

When he heard the howl, Soo Hyuk quickly closed all the system tabs he had open.

Awooo!

The wolf had already noticed Soo Hyuk and was calling for its allies.

-Awoo!

Soo Hyuk silently stared at the howling wolf. He was making sure that it would attract enough wolves before he killed it.

“Firebolt.”

The casting time for firebolt was 2 seconds, which meant that it would take 2 seconds for the spell to completely form. But Soo Hyuk was different from other users.

After he changed his job to ‘Archmage’s Descendant’, he unlocked the passive, ‘Archmage’. And after he opened the Door of Fire, it had evolved so that the casting time for fire skills would be reduced by 10 seconds. That meant Soo Hyuk could instantly cast firebolt.

(TL: I’m sorry. The archmage passive didn’t reduce the cooldown, it reduced the casting time. So please forget about that previous translation.)

Whoosh!

The firebolt flew towards the wolf with a whistling sound.

Bang!

His other spells couldn’t compare with Firebolt in terms of speed. The firebolt crashed heavily into the wolf and exploded.

– 1 wolf pelt

– 1 wolf fang

Soo Hyuk collected the dropped items and waited for the approaching wolves. The hunt had started.

“Magic missile!”

“Fireball!”

“Firebolt!”

“Magic missile!”

Soo Hyuk fired all his spells nonstop.

‘As expected.’

Soo Hyuk thought. The situation was countless times better than when he only had 2 skills. He hadn’t even gotten injured once.

“Aren’t there more coming?’

Soo Hyuk wondered as he looked at his surroundings which were littered with the carcasses of dead wolves. It seemed like he had annihilated every wolf in the area. Soo Hyuk collected the dropped items and opened his character tab.

“Mmm.”

Soo Hyuk smiled after seeing his current experience.

‘It’s a lot considering it’s only been 5 minutes.’

His level hadn’t risen, partly because of the massive amount of experience needed to level up his unique job, but it was impressive considering he had only hunted of 5 minutes so far.

Soo Hyuk closed his character tab and looked around.

‘But aren’t there too few of them?’

Soo Hyuk couldn’t see any wolves, but he hadn’t spotted any players either. Of course, that wasn’t a bad thing for him, as he wouldn’t have to meet any competition.

‘There’s a forest.’

Soo Hyuk arrived in front of a forest after travelling across a large expanse of grassland. The forest was also part of the wolf territory. The only problem was that unlike the grasslands behind him, the trees and the thick shrubs would obstruct his vision.

‘Let’s go in anyway.’

He decided. After all, Soo Hyuk wasn’t the only one whose field of vision was obstructed. The wolves would be too. Plus, he could use the trees as cover.

‘……Hmm?’

Soo Hyuk stopped not long after he enter the forest. He could see a lone wolf in the trees.

‘It’s too far.’

Although he didn’t know the exact distance between the wolf and himself, it was still too far to aim his skills properly. There was also another reason he didn’t fire.

‘Why is it so big?’

The wolf was huge. It was far bigger than the regular wolves. Soo Hyuk wouldn’t really be able to see the shape of a normal wolf over that distance, but right now he could clearly make out its ears. What if it wasn’t a normal wolf?

‘Wolf King!’

Translator and Editor Notes:

I’ll repeat, archmage reduces casting time not cooldown time! And this is todays regular.

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